FML

Well it is pretty ironic that I finally figured out what that means... since F**K my life is the way things are going of late.

First off I have been sick for going on two weeks. I don't think it is the swine flu since no one else has come forward with it in our town. Just a sore throat, fever that kept me home from school for two days and then after that it went straight to my head and has not left. I have too blow my nose all the time and I am tired. Ok so that is why I have not blogged..

I have been trying for 5 months now to get the idiot I caned a chair for to pick the dang thing up. He has been avoiding my calls till I finally told him I was going to take the chair to an antique shop and sell it to get my dang money. Then he called me back. Now the lady who really owns the chair is finally involved and called me to make arrangements. I feel bad for her. She is nice and going to call back in a couple weeks when she can get here from Black Earth which is far away..

Ok next on the docket is a goofy chair I am supposed to cane. I recently started working for this refinisher in Madison. He called me up to do this old chair that he has done a little procrastinating on and needs done quickly. When he described it he terrified me since it did not sound like any kind of caning I had ever done. I figured he knew something about cane though and told him I had quite a bit in stock. So he brings me the chair back (it is a rocker) and I see immediately it is a different weave than I have done in 15 years. I can do it, but I don't carry that much binder cane and now have to order some. The guy sort of freaks (hey I am not the one who waited till the last minute)and I tell him sorry, but that this company is very good and I should get it quickly. I order cane and it comes on Friday. I am all excited because I can get a good start on it this weekend. I rip open the package and it is 6.0mm instead of the 5.0mm size I ordered. Arghhhhhh!!!!!!! (not at all what I really said)

I sent a nasty e-mail off to him and he calls back on Saturday morning and apologizes. He will send a call tag for the wrong stuff and get the right stuff out. Now I am further behind.

Oh last but not least on Friday at the end of the school day we get an e-mail from the superintendent. Apparently the Governor has cut the budget to schools again. Desperate times call for desperate measures!. That leave our district having to make more cuts. Some teaching staff will be cut and three more support staff.

I race to open my seniority spread sheet and my fears are founded. Yup I am fourth from the bottom. The bottom person works at the elementary and only has a part time job. Unless a miracle happens that will be my job next year and I will then fall to the cuts scheduled for the following year.

I am not having a good week.

We did go to see Angels and Demons yesterday since when I checked Star Trek wasn't showing anywhere in Janesville. After we got our tickets I asked and the guy said. "Oh sure it is playing at Movies 10"
"I looked and it was not listed"
"you checked our site"
"yes, No listing for Star Trek, I thought it was odd"
" you check our site, not google or yahoo"
"NO, I checked the Movies 10 site and the Rock Site... That's why we are here!" (Idiot)

It was pretty good though and I think Maddie and I are going to see Star Trek tomorrow.

Maddie helped me get warped up and I wove a rug today. I also have gotten a lot of stuff listed on my rug site and vintage site. Need to start selling crap.

I have also been trying to get Maddie motivated to create a site on ETSY.. we have been struggling with names and I am naturally bossy. She is pretty bossy too, but I am thinking LizardBand might be a good name since it is funky, and identifiable. She could make some magnets and cards from her lizard band picture and it would cover her steampunk jewelry, felting and fine art too. It might just be that I see that picture hanging right above the computer so I have come to love it. She wants to re-do it. Ah well.

so that is my FML

Well that was exciting... Not!

Friday we went up to River Falls to pick up Maddie from school... oh dear I am getting ahead of myself

on Thursday I was poking around Maddie's school e-mail account. I usually try to keep track of her grades and stuff being the nosy mom that I am. Well I was having trouble getting in. I had had difficulty a while ago so had not been in for a while. I asked her if she had changed the password and she said no and gave it to me again. I copied and pasted that in and it worked.

First thing I noticed was a "to do" listing at the top of the page.
Parents 1040
Student's 1040

I asked her what that was all about and she said "Oh Yeah, I got a letter about that a while ago... they need your tax information"
"Is there a deadline?"
"Wait a minute, I'll check"
pause.... "Uh, yeah... it is tomorrow"

"WHAT?????!!!!!"

I had visions of the entire school year going away along with her planned semester abroad... it was not pretty.

I formulated a plan where she would scan her documents and send them to me and I would scan our documents and send them to her. As to the signatures they would have to be forged on her end.

I gathered up our tax information and started scanning. I could not find the Wisconsin tax forms anywhere though (I had not yet received the list from Maddie telling what they actually needed) I set Puck to that task and when he was not quick enough or helpful enough I lost it and threw papers and a pen at him. He made the fatal mistake of saying "You never handed them to me" after I had asked him three times to sign the federal forms because we did not have a copy of the originals that was already signed and dated. I do have a rather hysteric side to my personality and I was really at the end of my frustration level.

We got those signed and sent off... still looking for the Wisconsin forms when I finally got Maddie's letter and realized that they only needed the Federal forms. That calmed things down a little... Then she mentioned that she needed the W2's as well... She had only sent the back half of the document that she had so I did not realize that part.. I scanned those and sent them off and three hours of back and forth we were finally finished. I almost wish I was a drinker after that.

Next day I had taken a half day so we could get on the road early. My half day ended at 10:45. Unfortunately since we are so poor Puck took a half day as well and his day ended at 11:45 grrrr

I got home and gassed up the van, checked the oil and packed all we needed for a brief overnight with friends.

He got home and we set off. He drove the first leg, but his tremor (He has a benign familial tremor that is sometimes a problem for him and lately has been getting worse)was giving him problems. Because he had worked he had taken his meds earlier than normal so they were starting to wear off.

We switched drivers near Mauston... I had just started driving when I noticed the Brake light was on. I freaked (again my calm personality showed up Not!) We both finally determined that it probably was the emergency brake so we kept driving... just before we got to Black River Falls the car that was passing me started to honk and at the same time I felt the tire blow! I shuddered the van off to the side of the road just in front of a dead porcupine.

Puck got out of the van to see how close we were to the shoulder and motioned me to drive over a little ways... Using my Lori logic (as we have often called it) I figured it would be bad to change a tire right over the top of a dead porcupine so I straddled the thing and drove past it and over to the shoulder. This did not make sense to my husband, but there you go.

He proceeded to get all the tire changing stuff out and jacked up the van. When we un cranked our spare doughnut it looked pretty bad... metal was flaking off the rim, but it looked like the tire was still inflated. Puck got a couple lug nuts off but could not get the next one off. We were Stuck! I asked him if I should call 911 and he agreed.

Now I have used my cell phone a total of 10 or 12 times in the 8 years I have owned it. I nervously dialed 911 and it didn't go through the first time. Second time a very nice lady answered and was very helpful. I had to get back in the van because I could barely hear her with the semis whizzing by and the gale force winds. She asked me for my phone number so she could call me back (good thing I have that written on the back of the ding dang phone) Then she asked if we needed a wrecker and I said yes.

I sat and waited and worried because I had no clue what to do when the phone rang. I have never answered my cell phone! Then it rang and it seemed logical to push the middle button. Thank heavens that worked and it was the nice 911 lady. The the wrecker guy called and tried to find out where we were. I had no clue, but I did the best I could (who watches the mile markers when they are driving?)

I then called Maddie to let her know we would be late and we waited 20 minutes for the guy. He was all business and got the tire changed out very quickly. Puck asked him about getting a new tire and we ended up following him back to his garage. When we got there Puck asked him about the brake light and he told us that we probably had a severed brake line (YIKES!) but that he was too busy to fix it. He also told us that we still had brakes because of the way the van was set up. (OK that was promising) We bought a used tire and the guy gave Puck a 50 dollar discount because he noticed Puck's Masonic ring. That was nice.

We set off again in slight terror that we would never be able to stop. I drove the rest of the way which was about three hours. I got pretty good at dodging cars without touching the brakes and both of us sort of held our breaths when we came to the exit. Fortunately it was an uphill exit, but miracle of miracle the brakes held.

We got to River Falls two hours later than we had hoped and it was raining. Called Maddie and started packing (Of course she had way too much stuff) Puck and Maddie hauled things down because my knees would not take that kind of stress. I stayed in the room and cleaned and put the stuff back to rights. I wished I had a scrubbie or goo gone, but I am going to make some notes for next year so I do not come unprepared!

finally at 10:00pm we were done. Maddie finished painting over some holes and I bleached the huge pink stain left on the floor where her post-it notes had been sitting under the defrosting fridge. (lucky break that we had some bleach)

We drove to our dear friends house in New Richmond and visited late into the night. Got up and had a wonderful breakfast and more visiting. Puck called a couple garages, but nobody could get to it on Saturday. We decided to just drive home... carefully :)

Oh I almost forgot... apparently the spot we blew the tire in was a tick haven. Puck has pulled 10 ticks off his person and clothing, I have found 3 and even Maddie who wasn't even with us then has found two on her. (He had walked down into the ditch further than me and his pant have cuffs)

Maddie was nested into a small hole in the back seat which she had to crawl into from the front seat because the side door to the van no longer works. We had a couple things under foot in the front seat and 5 bins on top of the van under a tarp along with the bike.

Puck drove first again, but again his tremor caught up with him and I took over at Black River Falls... We made it home safe and sound and now Maddie is un packing... I have no idea where she is going to put all this crap. He boyfriend is here and he better be helping her clean!

It is her 20's birthday today and I am going to make a rhubarb pie. It is good to be home!

reprieve

after whining about my mother's day expectations I feel obligated to mention that I did get a google message from my daughter in the afternoon expressing Happy Mother's Day... It surprised me and pleased me... and now today her boyfriend who had been up there to see the play (Ok, to see her)brought back a mess of her stuff and handed me a small package from Maddie... it was a little brooch shaped like a stag beetle. I thanked her for the spider and she typed back. "Silly mom, it's a stag beetle!"

That is what I get for not putting on my rose colored glasses when I look at a gift :)

all is good.

the bad part of the day was having all three of the teachers I support out for the day. The sixth grade teacher was just fine... She had a nice big voice and the class went just like always.

Next was 8th grade, which is always horrible. This sub was the Hottie sub. He is quite a handsome young man and very nice and humble about it. He also has a beautiful speaking voice and should do radio or something with it. Well anyhow the girls were absolutely horrible snickering and gathering in corners to ogle the poor man.. The boys weren't much better.

One girl actually talked another girl into switching placed with her in the middle of small group discussion so she could sit next to him. Then when the two worst offenders left they hollered back into the room. Mr. H. You're cute! I was mortified at their lack of respect. Two boys hung back too and told him that "so and so" thought he was cute. I told them to stay appropriate and that they needed to leave.

Mr. H. and I talked a little about it and it embarrasses him. It makes it difficult to teach. He is really a nice young man. I guess we need to ugly him up a bit.

Last of the day I had the 7th grade. I was reading aloud and of course all the racy parts of the ding dang book showed up in my two little chapters. It is a young adult ghost story, but there seems to be some lascivious additions that are not necessary... such as describing how hot the summer is by mentioning the sweat trickling between her breasts... heck I was halfway into the sentence when I realized what I was reading to 7th grade boys. Yikes! I pushed on and danged if the next page didn't have the little shop girl talking about a midnight swim with her boyfriend with them being buck naked. I tried to make a joke of it, with limited success.... when we got to the severed hand though I really spooked it up and I think they forgot the naughty bits for a while anyhow!

I am glad this day is done. I think maybe I need to have someone talk to those girls about being appropriate to teachers.

Stuff

Mothers Day is tomorrow... I hate Mothers day!

expectations are too high. I wish I understood myself what I really want from it.

When my wonderful daughter does not remember it (she is too busy with the end of her school year) I get bummed and forget all the great things she helps me with, the little times she does think of me and I am surprised, our talks late at night when I am exhausted and she needs to talk, The terrific way she always tells me about the great stuff in her life. I think maybe I should send her the mother's day card since without her I am not one.

Every mother's day I miss my mom a little more than I miss her every day. It has been 30 years and I am still grieving.

OK enough wallowing

I did go to the nursery and bought three lovely raspberry plants on Friday along with tomatoes and some other stuff. I even bought a nice bag of compost just for the raspberries to give them a good start. It is cold today so I guess I will spend my Sunday planting... that will be fine.

Otherwise I got a chair dropped off to be rushed and I have gotten a big pile of blue jeans filleted for Puck to cut up.

making progress

Back from the Play

Just got home a little while ago from a trip to River Falls to see Maddie in As You Like It. We got up there a couple hours early to visit for a bit and Maddie was working hard on her burlesque costume. I helped out a little on that and then we were off to the show. She had to get there early for makeup and hair so Puck and I went out to get her some flowers and came back a little later to the theater.

I had gotten a very cute one of a kind card on Etsy that was collage of As You Like It ephemera and I found a rare copy of the play in hardbound with illustrations by Salvador Dali to give her as a memento of her first Shakespearean role. First editions of this particular script are quite expensive and the first copy I found on EBAY was over $300.00... well much as I adore my daughter that was a tad too rich for my blood. I searched some more over the next couple weeks and found a second edition copy for quite a bit less. It was well worth it though. She opened it in the greenroom and every actor in the place was clamoring to see it :)

The play was very good and although I didn't get any pictures there are some great ones on the school web site

After the play we went to my sister's house to spend the night. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we didn't get a long visit in, but it was good to see the family. In the morning they were off pretty early to plant soybeans and we needed to get on the road early so that Puck could get to work by 5:00. His tremors were acting up so I ended up driving the whole way back. I sure wish I could get him to go to the doctor and get his meds straightened out.

I got a pile of blue jeans from my sister and have been cutting those up in to hunks that Puck can cut into strips. It is a very straightforward fabric to cut and doesn't require any artistic choices so it is easy for him to get done. He lost his every other week hours at the bar and is feeling a little at loose ends lately.

Rock County (our county) has been pretty hard hit with the GM plant closing and all the peripheral industries then affected. Jobs are far and few between.

I met our new neighbor today. She is a newly divorced single woman. Apparently a pretty bitter divorce. Her ex started dating a very much younger woman only a few months after they were married. Unfortunately I know the girl and her grandmother. Dang small towns anyhow.

The neighbor has a couple dogs and a cat so instead of muffins I brought over some wool balls for the pets as a welcome to the neighborhood. It is nice to see a light in the window over there again after almost a year of darkness. She seems like a nice woman. We shall see what time will bring.

well back to the blue jeans